Hockey Team Falls Short of MIAC Playoffs, Ending Noteworthy Season
By Natalie Nemes
On Saturday, Feb. 18, the Wildcat hockey team rounded out their season with a loss to Saint Benedict, finishing with an overall record of 12-11-2 and a MIAC record of 6-10-2. This ranked the team sixth in the MIAC standings with a total of 22 points, just three points below Hamline’s grand total of 25 points. Teams that finish in the top five spots secure a playoff berth, leaving the Wildcats just one win short of a chance to compete for the MIAC championship.
Heading into their final game facing off with the Bennies, St. Kate’s had won their game the day before against the same team with a tie breaking goal in the last minute of play. This triumph gave them even more hope going into Saturday’s game, said captain Kaitlyn Blair ‘23 (Biochemistry, Psychology minor). “The team atmosphere was extremely positive, coaches were amped up, and we were all eager to play,” she said. “More specifically, the six of us seniors knew that these were our last two guaranteed games, and I think the younger girls started to understand what was on the line.”
The hockey team at The Deadend Hayride Credit: Paige Loidolt
St. Kate’s last competed in the MIAC hockey playoffs during the 2013-14 season (excepting last year’s tournament which took a different format than usual, seeding all 10 teams in a large championship bracket), when they entered as the fifth seed and lost in the first round to Concordia in overtime. Coming so close to a postseason and falling just short of it of course leads to some disappointment. Paige Loidolt ‘26 (Actuarial Science and Data Science, Mathematics minor) expressed that there were many games that the team could have won and made up the difference in points to secure a playoff spot, adding, “At the end of the day, we did fight till the end, and it just didn’t come our way at the end.”
The Wildcats began the season with the goal of earning themselves a spot in the MIAC playoffs, and while that dream did not come to fruition, their performance this season was still notable for several accomplishments. Head coach Brad Marshall said that this season was the team’s best since 2011-12, when the Wildcats ended with an overall record of 12-10-2 and a conference record of 8-8-2. Similarly, Blair noted, “In my four years here at St. Kate’s, this was the closest that we had ever been to making MIAC playoffs.”
Both Marshall and Blair noticed improvements from last year to this year—and not just in numbers, although their overall and MIAC showings of 12-11-2 and 6-10-2 were significantly better than last year’s records of 8-16-1 and 4-12-0, respectively. “The team improved both on and off the ice compared to last year,” Blair said. “The overall team relationship had become stronger, and individuals were hitting personal achievements that bettered the team.”
Marshall specifically credited the graduating class as the distinguishing factor that differentiated this year’s team from previous years’, saying that the seniors were their “go-to people on the team.” He added, “We relied heavily on them, and they had a pretty good year. … I think it [the main difference from previous years] was just more consistency and getting better production from some of our top-end players on the team.”
While the backbone of the team will be moving on from St. Kate’s at the end of this year, this leaves room for younger players to fill the space left behind. Marshall said that “it’s not going to be easy to replace our seniors,” but that he also looks forward to what this could mean for underclassmen next season. “There’s always that excitement about, okay, now it’s a younger person’s turn to step up and maybe fill the [role] of a goal-scorer,” Marshall said.
Wildcat hockey fans can look forward to the team once again vying for a MIAC playoff spot come the kickoff of the new season in October. In the meantime, have fun checking out the St. Kate’s athletics website for short articles recapping the games won and lost this season, or watch for updates on the ongoing fight for the MIAC championship on the MIAC women’s ice hockey webpage.
